


If you work instead of wishing

by LittleRaven



Category: Princess and the Frog (2009), Twisted Princess (Disney Fanart)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2012-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 20:43:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/pseuds/LittleRaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a new cabin in the bayou.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you work instead of wishing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JJ_Shinnick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJ_Shinnick/gifts).



There was a new cabin in the bayou. It was straight and square, and not up in the trees. 

She hadn’t yet figured out how to present herself in New Orleans; this shadow thing hurt and how could she face her mother. Well she didn’t have to, but being in the city – if she couldn’t see mama she didn’t want to be there again. What now? 

Tiana’d just thought she didn’t want to go, and of course that meant she was already thinking of how to do so. Her dream, her mother; that was all finished now, it had to be. Herself and Louis were what she had. Somehow she didn’t think Mama Odie would be happy with what she’d become. Or could she help? Maybe. She hadn’t wanted to use any magic on them last time, all ‘dig down deep,’ but she’d had a way to break the spell anyway, if only they’d followed it on time. Instead of doing it herself. Tiana had trusted Mama Odie and Naveen had died and Ray had died and there was poison in her (and Naveen). That hadn’t been ‘cause of the instructions, not really. Why couldn’t she have turned them back – she’s not us you know, what a thing to think – not now, she said, not now. I never made a deal with you.

You never needed to. He did – thieves don’t get away with using us. I can’t talk to you. True enough. You don’t belong now, ignorant as you are. But Mama Odie can’t help you now. You can’t. Leave. True enough.

Tiana had things inside her, and Louis. “I don’t mind,” he’d said, quivering, “I don’t mind staying with you” he said with steadiness. They sat on the dark cabin floor, smooth and made smoother by the slime from Tiana’s new pallid skin. 

“Sure you don’t have a home waiting for you?” She knew he hadn’t said goodbye to anyone. Ray had, Ray had said goodbye and asked his friends – but quivering Louis was not like the other gators and never seemed to have a thing beyond his dream – and Ray and her and Naveen. 

At this, he pressed himself further into the wood with “no, I can stay Tiana, thanks for the worry.” 

“Right.” There wasn’t much she could say to that. Just sit in this cabin until, until something. This cabin she raised because she needed it, so it was there, as far away from Mama Odie as she could get and still be far from the city. But she had to go back. She couldn’t talk to Odie and she couldn’t go back, but she had to go back. “Louis, Louis.”

“Tiana?” He peered up beneath his lids, head still pressed down. 

“I was a human, a frog, and now this. With the same thing that changed me inside. It went inside of me.” 

“Yeah?” He watched her warily now, head lifted and eyes wide and round – too round for a gator, really. Too big. 

“I can make it change me again. I can do it.” 

“Tiana, do you know how? Did those things tell you -’ he yelped and hugged himself as best he could ‘they are not trustworthy!”

“How did Mama Odie help us?”

“Aw Ray…” he moaned. 

“And Naveen,” she said stolidly. “The shadows were stronger than anybody, even the Shadow Man. And what else do we have? I’ll just have to dig a little deeper.”

He shuddered but made no protest. Good. 

It was possible. It was as possible as becoming a frog. It was something she could and had to do – look at what she’d been doing, ending up like this was the Shadow Man’s fault, tricking people who wanted the easy shortcuts leading to worse than nothing. Wishing and Shadow Men and Mama Odie – that brought nothing but trouble and she’d known it from the start. You’re gonna tell me what I can do. The shadows sighed and hummed. You’ve seen, you’ve seen, we don’t work for others. You were always ours, but you never learned how. You can’t be helped. I ain’t looking, I’m taking from you. Souls. I don’t think so. I’m no Shadow Man. They hummed louder. We can take you too. Then you get nothing, and I know that’s not why you got inside me. No, no. Well - We were always there. Mama told me never to mess with you. We were always there and then you used us for your gain. It was your choice to not know any better. No all I did was make a wish - 

“Tiana?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Yeah, I figured.” He hesitated, looking at the floor, looking at her.

“Well, Louis? You’ve got something to say, there’s no sense wasting time.”

“How exactly are you going to try doing this? I mean, do you have to make deals with them? Or or is them being in you like that making them listen to you?”

“I ain’t making deals with them. Monsters can keep their paws off my soul.”

“But they’re in you. I mean, all right. I trust you.”

His voice had gone soft there and that almost helped. But letting herself get soothed was not something she could do right now, and it was never her style. Even with Naveen – no, especially with Naveen stuck among the shadows. They had his soul. Yes, yes. We don’t give them back; he was always ours too. You all come sooner or later. But we can get him out of you. Then get him out.

A head rolled gently towards her. Louis pushed her away, yelping next to the wall, as she stood and stared. Hollow eyes and sewed up lips – that’s your Shadow Man. You let us make him this. “I ain’t doing nothing, and I never did. Why can’t he speak to me!” 

“Who’re you talking to? Tiana?” Louis leaned forward and backed away, before leaning forward again. 

“If he’s trapped in here why hasn’t he said anything! Let him speak to me and I will decide what’s best after that.” She picked the head up by the curls – it still had thick dark hair, how ridiculous – and held it at arm’s length, glaring. 

“Tiana put that down right now.”

She lifted it as if to toss it to the ground, but held it instead, until Louis smacked it out of her hands with his tail and out the window. Tiana grabbed his tail – “Louis” – and looked at the shadows run from her skin into his eyes. “Louis.”

He was pallid and alive. “I said I’d stay with you.”


End file.
